People who care for incapacitated individuals are faced with the problem of bathing the patient in a manner compatible with his/her disabilities. Since many invalids are unable or unwilling to use a conventional shower facility, it is desirable to have a portable shower stall which can be brought to the patient and quickly assembled in a manner that does not unduly alarm the invalid or tax his/her patience. Such a portable shower stall should also be designed so that the caregiver can remain outside the shower enclosure while still directing the shower head and having access to the patient to scrub him/her.
A portable shower stall for invalids may be employed in either an institutional or home setting. Therefore, it should be designed to be used in conjunction with a nearby water faucet and sink, with the former serving as a water source and the latter serving as an outlet for waste water. It is also desirable that the portable shower stall be collapsible into a compact configuration that can be conveniently stowed away when the shower is not in use.
The present invention addresses the foregoing needs in a manner which represents a significant improvement over the prior art. In the prior art we find several patents directed to wheeled bed-baths (e.g., Morcate et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,257, Oct. 21, 1997; Gruner, U.S. Pat. No. 6,802,088 B1, Oct. 12, 2004) or wheeled showering cabinets (e.g., Queen et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,983, Nov. 9, 1999). These inventions are designed to accommodate bed-ridden and non-ambulatory patients, but they are not particularly suited for use by an ambulatory invalid, such as an Alzheimer's or stroke patient. Indeed, in the case of an ambulatory mentally incapacitated patient, it may be more problematic to get them into a bed-bath or showering cabinet than to get them into a conventional shower. Moreover, these inventions have the disadvantage of not being collapsible and require considerable space for storage when not in use.
Portable shower designs which provide for varying degrees of disassembly and compact storage are disclosed in Davies, U.S. Pat. No. 4,866,794, Sep. 9, 1989, Ray, U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,992, Aug. 11, 1998, and Zhou, U.S. Pat. No. 6,745,414 B2, Jun. 8, 2004. But these inventions are designed for use in an outdoor or industrial setting and are not suitable for indoor institutional or home use. They are not designed to be used in conjunction with a water faucet and sink. They are also not particularly suitable for use by caregivers of invalid patients, since they lack the means for a caregiver to remain outside the shower enclosure while directing the shower spray onto a patient.
While both portable and collapsible, the shower apparatus taught by Hartline et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,389,617 B1, May 21, 2002, is primarily designed for use in the cab of a truck or a tractor-trailer and thus provides for its own internal water supply tank and water disposal tank. Therefore, this design is unduly complex and cumbersome because it does not take advantage of the availability of running water and sinks in the institutional or home setting. It also lacks the means for a caregiver to remain outside the shower enclosure while bathing the patient.
O'Connell, U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,001, Apr. 27, 1993, is directed to a portable collapsible shower enclosure accommodating an invalid person. But it is not self-supporting and requires an overhead point of suspension, which may not be available in an institutional or home setting. It is also designed to be used with the caregiver being inside the shower enclosure with the patient.
Patterson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,992, Dec. 11, 1990, teaches a portable shower stall which collapses into a suitcase-like enclosure for convenient storage. It also utilizes a shower and sump arrangement connected to a nearby sink. The shower stall can be quickly assembled by inserting vertical support members into the base of the suitcase-like enclosure. Supported by these vertical members is a ceiling panel from which the showerhead and the shower curtain are suspended. While this design is well suited for a non-invalid person, such as a traveler, who is capable of showering him/herself, the ceiling panel obstructs the access of the caregiver to the interior of the shower stall and interferes with the caregiver's ability to reach inside the shower stall to direct the shower spray and wash the patient.
The present invention represents a substantial improvement over the prior art with respect to a portable, stowable shower stall designed for use by a caregiver in washing an invalid in a home or institutional setting. Like the design disclosed in Patterson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,992, the present invention teaches the use of a very portable suitcase-like enclosure in which the components of the shower stall are stored when not in use. Like the Patterson design, the present invention also utilizes a faucet-connected showerhead and a sump in the basin panel of the suitcase-like enclosure which discharges to a sink.
Also like the Patterson design, the present invention employs collapsible vertical poles to form the shower stall. But unlike the Patterson design, in the present invention the back panel of the suitcase-like enclosure does not detach to form the ceiling panel of the shower stall, but instead remains hingeably attached to the basin panel to form a partial back wall for the shower stall. Instead of having a ceiling panel, the top of the shower stall remains open in the present invention. A shower curtain rod attachable to the top of the vertical poles supports a shower curtain, which completes the shower enclosure. Instead of being affixed to a ceiling panel, the shower head in the present invention is designed to be held and directed by the caregiver outside the shower enclosure. The shower head may be temporarily hooked or clipped to any position on the shower curtain rod in order to free the hands of the caregiver for washing the patient.
One of the great advantages of the present invention is that the shower stall can literally be assembled and disassembled around the patient as he/she stands or sits on the floor of the basin panel. This eliminates the difficult task of trying to move an uncooperative or disoriented patient into and out of a pre-established shower stall. Consequently, the present invention is ideally suited to the task of showering a mentally impaired or disturbed patient in the institutional or home setting.